Eric Benshetler

This is a good port for a shore excursion, since there isn't much to see right in the town except the shops on Creek Street, which is only a block long. We were considering either the "Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show" and the "Saxman Native Village Tour," and ended up doing neither although both were probably good choices. The lumberjack show is right at the cruise ship dock; it's an open arena but the audience seats are under a roof. I saw lumberjack shows many years ago in Idaho and Wisconsin and thought our boys in particular might enjoy it. The Saxman tour includes a chance to watch and even participate in native dancing in a tribal house. We saw highlights later on the cruise television and it looked reasonably good. This would also be a good choice on one of the rainy days that are frequent in Ketchikan.

Since the weather was nice, my wife thought that it would be fun to go on another boat trip to look at wildlife, so we ended up on the "Ketchikan Explorer by Land & Sea." We were able to book this afternoon tour that morning at the shore excursion desk. The first part was a boat ride. The boat was smaller than the one we took in Seward, with indoor and outdoor viewing areas. The crew handed out juice and small snacks while we were on the water. We didn't see as much wildlife as on our Seward trip, but did see some seals, a couple adult bald eagles, and an eagle nest with a juvenile bald eagle. "Captain Mark" was able to take his boat into some very tight areas along the shore where we were able to see starfish under the water along with some jellyfish. The tour guide on this part of the trip kept pointing out interesting sights along the way. I enjoyed the scenery and the boat trip itself, just don't expect to see a lot of wildlife.

The boat docked at a salmon cannery that was abandoned suddenly in 1959, where we met our tour guide and bus driver for the second part of the trip. After viewing a film about the salmon canning industry and how it changed drastically due to legislation in 1959, we toured the old plant. We then boarded a bus and drove to the Saxman village, where we had a chance to look at several totem poles there and the outside of the tribal house. (This is the same one where the dancing is held on the other tour, although we didn't go inside.) There's a totem carving shed on the site that is not part of this tour. One of the tourists from another ship in port who was on this tour with us was upset that it wasn't, since he was a long-time woodcarver and had thought that it was included. Although none of the carvers was around, our guide was able to sneak us into the shed and, while we stood on the other side of a barrier from the carving area, gave an overview of the tools the carvers use. Someone asked about the totem colors. He explained how the red, black, and blue paints were traditionally mixed from local materials, but now the carvers simply get pick them up at the Ace Hardware store in town! Just as he finished, the master woodcarver, Mr. Jackson, returned. Hopefully our guide won't get in too much trouble over taking us into the shed while he was out. On the bus trip back to town, we heard a shortened version of the 5-hour-long tale behind one of the totem poles we had seen. All in all, this was a great way to spend the afternoon.

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